Putin Combines the Arctic with the Far East

According to a recent press release, Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree transferring the functions for the formulation and implementation of the state policy and regulatory framework for the socioeconomic development of the Arctic to the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and renamed it the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic.

At present, the Ministry is overseeing two major projects in the Arctic zone – the development of Peschanka, one of the world’s largest copper deposits located in the Baim ore zone in the Chukotka Autonomous Area, and the construction of an offshore liquefied natural gas transhipment complex in the Kamchatka Territory’s Bechevinskaya Bay for the transhipment of liquefied natural gas to be exported from the Yamal LNG plant and in the future from the Arctic LNG 2 to countries of the Asia-Pacific region via the Northern Sea Route.

Russia’s Arctic lands have total area of roughly 3 million square km (18% of the entire territory of the Russian Federation), including 2.2 million square km of land, where approximately 2.5 million people reside.